


Trapped and Released

by Sarah_the_Something



Category: Swapfell - Fandom, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: 2nd Person, Alternate Universe - Swapfell (Undertale), Angst, COVID-19, Close friends with sans, Corona - Freeform, Corona Virus - Freeform, Depression, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Mental Illness, One shot that may become more, Panic, Panic Attack, Papyrus (swapfell) - Freeform, Papyrus - Freeform, Reader starts with Papyrus, Sans (swapfell) - Freeform, Sans - Freeform, Swapfell, Swapfell Papyrus (Undertale), Swapfell Sans (Undertale), Undertale AU, Undertale Alternate Universe, already in relationship, self indulgent, undertale - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 08:40:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23468548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarah_the_Something/pseuds/Sarah_the_Something
Summary: You're living alone in San Fransisco in a long distance relationship with (swapfell) Papyrus when the shelter in place for Covid-19 is established, and you panic, not ready to be alone. Thankfully, your panic may be an overreaction and the fluff begins. This is a one shot that may become more depending on if people are interested / if i have time.
Relationships: Reader & Sans, Reader & Sans (platonic/familial), Reader/Papyrus, Reader/Papyrus (Swapfell), Reader/Papyrus (romantic), Sans & Reader (Swapfell)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 52





	Trapped and Released

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Dirty Laundry](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18528973) by [popatochisp](https://archiveofourown.org/users/popatochisp/pseuds/popatochisp). 



> ok ok I know not everyone approves of COVID-19 related fics, but I really really needed somewhere to release some emotional energy and I have a feeling others might also get some catharsis from reading this. This is a very self indulgent fic, but one that I hope you guys will enjoy. Lots of fluff and comfort coming here! This is also my first time writing swapfell Papyrus but he's really the one that spoke to me here so hopefully it'll turn out alright! I'm ok with a little constructive criticism but please keep it light as I'm emotionally sensitive rn lol.
> 
> This work was vaguely inspired by a swapfell fic Dirty Laundry by popatochisp (yes i realize my other work was also inspired by popatochisp what can I say the writing is so good ok) in that she helped me realize how amazing swapfell Papyrus is.

_-travel in and out of California is not recommended for the next few months, all residents are required to shelter in place and only leave for essentials-_

You sit, your camomile tea left abandoned on the table, watching the news with a blank expression. It was your day off. Things like this don’t happen on days off. They happen while you’re at work, or in class, or doing anything other than trying to enjoy your Tuesday morning. You weren’t even going to watch the news in the first place, you’d been planning on watching cartoons, maybe Spongebob. But this was the station that came on when you’d turned on the TV, and now you couldn’t bring yourself to turn it off.

Suddenly the tiny San Francisco apartment you’d been living in felt even smaller. The walls close in around you and your breathing gets uncontrollably fast. You’re alone, alone for months, no roommates, no classes, just you and your thoughts and whatever food you have in the kitchen. Somewhere in the back of your mind you recognize that your phone is ringing. The loud trumpets of the batman theme sound like squeeks compared to the pumping of your heartbeat. You’d downloaded the ringtone in high school and kept it because it made you smile, but now it just made you think about how much you’d taken for granted and-

No.

_No._ _You’re stronger than this._

You’re having a panic attack. You’ve had them before. You can deal with this. You take deep breaths for four seconds, hold it for four seconds, breath out for four seconds, hold it for four seconds. You repeat this four times.

“I can see the TV. I can see the couch. I can see my phone. I can see my bangs that I should cut because they’re getting too long-,” another deep breath, “-and I can see my feet.”

Next you count four of what you can hear, three of what you can feel, and two of what you can smell. You know you’re talking to thin air but it’s what your therapist had recommended would calm you down so you did it. Once you’ve finished, your breathing has calmed down enough for you to lean forward and take a sip from your camomile tea. You breathe in deeply as you bring the cup towards your face, the sweet scents of the dried flower filling your brain with new senses.

Your heart has stopped pounding. It’s time to face the issue again.

You’re in a shelter in place because of COVID-19. You’re in San Francisco, in your apartment. You’re a second year medical student, and you’ll be doing classes online. You have no roommate. You have food in the fridge to last another week. You’ll figure out what to do after that.

You get up and start tidying. If you’re going to be stuck in your apartment for months, you might as well make it look nice. You know in the back of your mind that you’re stress cleaning, but it’s the best you can do right now.

You finish making your bed and hear another phrase from the news still on in the other room.

“ _\- although monsters cannot get sick, whether or not they can be carriers is yet to be determined so the government is including monsters in the shelter in place until further notice. They are urging-”_

Monsters. Like your boyfriend. Your boyfriend who should know - THE PHONE CALL.

You run into the other room where you’d left your phone on the couch, forgotten in your stress. Sure enough, you have three missed calls, all from your skeleton boyfriend, Papyrus. You swipe right on the notification and the phone starts to call him back. A picture shows up on the screen, the one that you’ve selected for his contact photo. It’s a photo of the two of you, Papyrus holding up the phone sneakily while you napped against him, your head tucked under his chin. His eye sockets are smiling up at the camera, the dark orange eyelights shining with the joy of having you close. His teeth are curved into a soft smile, the four sharp canines looking cute rather than threatening, and despite everything you smile back.

Then the call goes to voicemail. He didn’t pick up. A flash of panic goes through you and you call again. While it rings you try to calm down the panic, telling yourself that five missed calls and no answering doesn’t necessarily mean he’d been in trouble.

The call goes to voicemail. This time you listen to the message.

“Lo’, it’s Rus. Can’t make it to the phone right now, please leave a message if you can. *BEEP*”

“Rus, it’s me, please call.”

It occurs to you to check your texts and you find a string of messages from Papyrus.

_please call, don’t worry_

_*maple leaf emoji*_

You relax slightly. Being in a long distance relationship isn’t always easy, especially when you’re both very busy. After a couple irrational scares where Papyrus had gotten interrupted during an intense text conversation and you’d panicked for a variety of reasons, the two of you came up with a code to explain why you’d suddenly stopped contact: a maple leaf emoji. It seemed silly, but it came in handy for both of you during busy days when you couldn’t always stay focused on your phone.

You leave the phone volume on high and plug it in on your desk while you keep tidying. It seems like something silly to do while the world was figuratively (or literally?) burning around you, but since the best thing for you to do was stay inside, it was what you did.

Though part of you wondered if there was more you could be doing. You were only in your second year of medical school, you hadn’t started interning, where you would get actual practice in medicine. All you’d done was listen to lectures and memorize unending pieces of information on the human body and various treatments.

But that was the thing, you knew so much. Sure, you hadn’t started officially practicing yet but you had volunteered as a medical assistant plenty of times. And didn’t they need anyone who could help at this point?

You hadn’t heard any notifications yet, but you checked your phone anyway. Right when you look at it, it lights up with a call. You jump at the trumpeting sound, and quickly pick up.

“Hello? Papyrus?”

“Hey, Petal,” he says, referring to you with his usual pet name, “I saw the news. I guess this means ya won’t be visiting next weekend?”

It’s finally too much. You hadn’t even thought about not being able to see Papyrus anymore. He lived a five hour train ride away, going to art school. It had been hard enough not seeing him most weeks, now it was going to be months. Months, alone in your tiny apartment. You begin to cry.

You put your hand up to your mouth and breath heavily out of your nose, blocking yourself from making noise as tears start to stream out of your face. 

“Wait, Petal? Y/N? Are you there?” Papyrus’s soft voice, and the memories of being with him that come with it makes your heart break even more and a sob escapes through your hands. “Petal? Are you crying?”

You panic, not wanting to worry him, and hang up. He calls back immediately, but you hang up again. He starts texting but you put the phone aside. You finally remove your hand and let yourself cry audibly, curling in on yourself. 

You can’t take it, you can’t. Things had been stressful enough before all this started. The hand sanitizers being put all over campus had just been the start. Then everyone had started panic buying, and you’d been caught in hoards of people grabbing at food when you were trying to get groceries. When your school went online you’d at least been planning to drive to the beach every once in a while, maybe interact with the few friends you’d made at school, maybe see Papyrus on the weekends. But now you were stuck. You weren’t near any nature, you could maybe go on runs around the block but you’d always be alone. 

You’d already been struggling before this stupid pandemic started. Your anxiety was strong, and medical school had been incredibly stressful. You fought every day against your depression, against the constant stress from your parents.

You couldn’t do this anymore. You sob and sob, curled up on the floor. You lie there for what feels like hours, growing quiet, the occasional tear still falling, but mostly hit with a wave of panic that turns into depression as you lose all motivation to move. You start to drift off.

\----

Softness. Warmth. You’re still a little numb, but you feel a blanket being wrapped around you and you shift, seeing a familiar form reaching down and picking you up bridal style. You’re still in a foggy after-sleep, but a part of your mind recognizes the form of Papyrus, carrying you effortlessly to the bed. You mumble something that sounds like a question.

“I’m here Petal, it’s ok.” His soft voice calms you and you shift deeper into his arms, pressing your face into his chest. He carries you to your bed and lies down next to you, snuggling into the covers next to you. You snuggle closer to him, brain still too stuffy to question how he got there too seriously. You feel his warm magic flowing across his strong arms as he wraps them around you and you snuggle close to his chest. He places his skull over your head and you sigh, finally feeling at peace for the first time in weeks. You drift off to sleep again.

\-----

You wake up an hour later, still curled against Papyrus. This time, however, you’re awake enough to realize what’s happening.

“Papyrus?!” You try to move away but his arms are still wrapped around you and gosh dang it if he doesn’t hold onto you like his life depended on it.

“Mrgmrmmm,” is his only reply, pulling you close to him again.

“Papyrus, seriously, it’s dangerous to be traveling right now, how did you get here?!”

“Mmmmm Sans teleported me.”

“Does he have enough magic to handle that kind of jump?”

“He’s ok,” he mumbled.

“Wait, is he here too?”

“PAPYRUS, I CAN HEAR YOU TWO TALKING IN THERE. BRING Y/N SO WE CAN EAT DINNER.”

So that answered that.

Papyrus groans another time before climbing out of bed. You move to follow him, still high off of getting to snuggle next to him, but he reaches over and picks you up again, blanket and all. You squeak slightly and he chuckles, but you don’t protest otherwise. It had been a while since getting to see him, after all, and you’d been quite touch starved. You know he’d been as well, seeing as he got touch starved as much as you, which was basically every day.

He walks you into the kitchen and you find Sans standing over the stove, cooking what smelled like some wonderful pork chops. You find your mouth watering.

Papyrus sits down at the table, with you still in his lap. You wriggle, trying to get off, but he just pulls you closer to him.

“Papyrus! I can’t eat like this!”

“PAPYRUS, I KNOW YOU’RE GLAD TO SEE Y/N, BUT I WOULD LIKE HER TO BE ABLE TO EAT, ESPECIALLY AFTER I HAVE PUT THE EFFORT INTO THIS MAGNIFICENT DINNER.”

Papyrus grumbles, but reluctantly puts you down on the chair next to him to the right. He immediately grabs your left hand and you smile, realizing that you’ll be doing all eating with your right hand for the meal. 

“Sans, are you ok? I never thought you could teleport that far.”

Sans smiles and pats your other hand lightly.

“IT’S GOOD TO SEE YOU Y/N. DON’T WORRY, WE KNEW I’D LIKELY HAVE TO DO IT AT SOME POINT SO WE’D BEEN STOCKING UP ON EXTRA LIQUID MAGIC TO HELP ME WITH THE JUMP. ALL I NEEDED WAS A QUICK SLEEP AFTER AND I WAS FINE,” He turns and starts walking back to the kitchen, spine straight and head held up high, “AND IT’S GOOD SEE PAPYRUS HAPPY. HE WAS REALLY WORRIED ABOUT YOU.” You turn back to Papyrus guiltily.

“I’m sorry I hung up on you, Rus,” you frown and look down, blushing. When you look up again, he’s chuckling. He reaches over with his left hand and brushes some hair out of your eyes.

“Don’t worry, you’ve had a rough time. I’m just glad I can see you again. Next time just try to send me a text that you’re too upset to talk or something, or look at what I’m saying so you can see if it’s something important. Like that I’m coming over” 

Ah, yes. That would have been good to know.

You nod and lean your cheek into his hand.

Sans walks up and puts plates in front of the two of you, sitting down with his own. Yours is piled high with pork chop, mashed potatoes, and deliciously seasoned baked broccoli. You and Papyrus dig in immediately. Sans does too, but with more dignity.

After the meal, which is mostly spent discussing what you’d been learning in class and Papyrus’s latest portfolio project, Sans clears his throat. You brace yourself for him to announce that they're leaving.

“I THINK IT’S TIME TO ADDRESS HOW THINGS SHOULD GO FROM HERE. PAPYRUS AND I ARE BOTH WORKING FROM HOME FROM NOW ON. PAPYRUS HAS BEEN KICKED OUT OF HIS DORM UNTIL THIS IS OVER, AND I WILL NO LONGER BE STAYING AT THE EMBASSY FOR THE TIME BEING. WE HAVE DISCUSSED IT, AND WE THINK IT WOULD BE BETTER FOR BOTH OF US IF WE STAY HERE WITH YOU, RATHER IN OUR SPARSE APARTMENT.” He looks back at you briefly, “THAT IS, IF IT’S OK WITH YOU.”

You sit, stunned. Papyrus leans over and finally lets go of your hand to put his arm around your shoulder.

“Petal? There’s no pressure here, ok hun? We mostly want to be with you for the company,” He squeezes you close and you finally blink.

“Yes! Yes! Of course!” You can't stop smiling.

In just a few hours, your life had gone from feeling completely over to feeling like you’d won the lottery. Your bone friend and his brother, living with you? It was a dream come true.

\--------

You and Papyrus are baking chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen while Sans sets up a place for him to sleep in your spare room. Your queen sized bed would be fine for you and Papyrus. Somehow, your tiny apartment felt like a mansion when your two best friends were staying with you.

The cookies go in the oven and you and Papyrus sit down on the couch together, cuddled in a blanket. You’re finally watching the Spongebob that you’d sat down to watch this morning, and the two of you giggle together at his jokes and antics while you cuddle in his arms. His strong bones wrap around you while you lie in his lap, and he strokes your hair softly. 

Soon, Sans comes in with a plate of the cookies and hot chocolate as you belatedly realize that you should have taken them out from the oven. Thankfully Sans had been there to realize your mistake.

Sans joins you on the couch, finally shedding some of his formal nature to lean against Papyrus as well, and you throw the blanket over the three of you to make one big cuddle pile. At one point, Papyrus leans down to give you a quick kiss, his sharp teeth lightly brushing against your lips as he whispers sweet nothings in your ear. Sans politely pretends not to notice as Papyrus sits back up.

You hum softly to yourself, pleased. Things weren’t going to be easy, you were still stuck inside. Motivating yourself to work and exercise might still be difficult. Finding food may still be a challenge. But now that you have your friends, no, your _family_ here, things finally seem doable.

Things finally seem ok.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Tada! If you liked this fic, come say hi at my tumblr @sarah-the-something, or check out my other work, a multichapter soft-horrortale fic called How to Bloom that is currently being produced!
> 
> There is a chance that more chapters will be added to this depending on interest from you guys / how much time I'll have. Please let me know your thoughts!
> 
> Stay safe and sane my friends!


End file.
